The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to a local management system for IHSs provided in a converged infrastructure system.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
IHSs are sometimes provided in a converged infrastructure system in which multiple IHSs are packaged into an optimized computing solution that may include compute IHSs (e.g., server IHSs), network IHSs (e.g., switch IHSs), storage IHSs, software, and/or other converged infrastructure system components known in the art. Such converged infrastructure systems centralize IHS resources, consolidate IHSs, increase resource utilization, and lower costs by providing the IHSs for sharing by multiple applications. However, the management of converged infrastructure systems raises a number of issues. For example, a converged infrastructure system administrator or technician is typically presented with a complex array of installation, operational, and troubleshooting tasks for the converged infrastructure system that limit the ability to use a remote system connected to the converged infrastructure system to manage the IHSs in that converged infrastructure system. The use of such remote systems is further complicated by the fact that they may be a relatively far distance away from the converged infrastructure system, further limiting their usefulness for management of the converged infrastructure system if any situation comes up that requires the administrator to be physically located next to the converged infrastructure system. Local management of the converged infrastructure system typically requires that the administrator must use a mobile administrator IHS (e.g., a laptop IHS, a tablet IHS, etc.) to attempt to connect to and manage the IHSs in the converged infrastructure system. The use of mobile administrator IHSs for management is further complicated by the fact that the administrator may have no (or limited) network connectivity to the IHSs in the converged infrastructure system or their management functions, and firewalls are typically employed in converged infrastructure system locations (e.g., data centers) to prevent access to the converged infrastructure systems by unauthorized devices.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved converged infrastructure management system.